Terry Gilliam

"The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus," Terry Gilliam's best film in years, isn't due to open until Dec. 25, but for those of you who can't wait, the American Cinematheque has brought back a few of this visionary director's greatest hits. On Saturday, luxuriate in the glory that is "Brazil," a science fiction satire that has lost none of its bite. And on Sunday, revisit the marvelous "Time Bandits," the story of a time-traveling 11-year-old that proves that smartly made films can captivate children and adults alike.

"Say, 'Hi, Internet!' " Win Butler of the Arcade Fire urged the crowd at Madison Square Garden on Thursday night. "Let's show 'em what they're missing!" His rallying cry was oddly peevish, considering that this second night of the Canadian ensemble's headlining debut at New York's famed sports arena was being webcast worldwide, with top filmmaker Terry Gilliam serving as director. Yet it struck the core of what makes the Arcade Fire crucial to so many young (and young-hearted) rock fans: the power of voices and bodies moving molecules together, which can't be replicated in cyberspace.

Though "The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus" will probably always be known primarily as the last film for actor Heath Ledger, it may someday also be recognized as the first real film role for Lily Cole. The 21-year-old British-born Cole already has been one of the world's top models since being discovered at the age of 14. With her distinctive wide-set eyes, tiny button mouth, porcelain-pale skin and bright red hair, there is something ethereal, almost alien about her, an in-built strangeness that director Terry Gilliam set to full use in "Parnassus," which opened in Los Angeles on Christmas Day and will expand to theaters nationwide on Jan. 8. "That's why I cast her," said Gilliam.

Though "The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus" will probably always be known primarily as the last film for actor Heath Ledger, it may someday also be recognized as the first real film role for Lily Cole. The 21-year-old British-born Cole already has been one of the world's top models since being discovered at the age of 14. With her distinctive wide-set eyes, tiny button mouth, porcelain-pale skin and bright red hair, there is something ethereal, almost alien about her, an in-built strangeness that director Terry Gilliam set to full use in "Parnassus," which opened in Los Angeles on Christmas Day and will expand to theaters nationwide on Jan. 8. "That's why I cast her," said Gilliam.

"12 Monkeys" director Terry Gilliam will hold a live online chat at 6 p.m. on Jan. 4. The chat will be carried simultaneously on Microsoft Network's the Cinemania Connection, on Compuserve's Entertainment Drive and on the Internet via Universal's World Wide Web site for "12 Monkeys." The chat is the interactive debut for Gilliam, who was a founder of Monty Python's Flying Circus.

Terry Gilliam isn't literally shaking in his boots--or, to be more precise, his leather shoes and regulation green Fred Flintstone socks--but he's doing a fine job of at least feigning a case of professional nerves over the critical reaction to his new film. "It scares the . . . out of me," admits the Monty Pythonite turned directorial iconoclast, normally famous for giggling in the face of frightening adversity.

Terry Gilliam's "The Adventures of Baron Munchausen," a live-action fantasy being shot in Spain and Italy, has been shut down by the film's financial bonding company, amid rumors that a new director is being sought to replace Gilliam. "They're trying to fire me, there's no question about that," said Gilliam, in a telephone interview from Cinecitta Studios in Rome. "They say they have two directors waiting in the wings."

Film, like every other art form with life to it, needs its mavericks, and apparently also needs to make their way as difficult as possible. In one of those convergences that myth-master Joseph Campbell would have understood completely, one of our great hero-mavericks has departed just as a prime candidate for the title arrives with his newest work. Who's to say such things are accidents?

Irony is one ingredient never in short supply in Hollywood, where alliances and friendships are forged, broken and repaired according to the next project and next potential fortune. But there have been few ironies in recent years quite as rich as the current honeymoon between former Monty Python illustrator Terry Gilliam and MCA's Universal Pictures.

The Criterion Collection's eye-opening laser disc on "The Adventures of Baron Munchausen" might well be called "The Amazing Misadventures of Filmmaker Terry Gilliam." Few lasers assault the viewer with such dazzling technique and such dazing, mind-boggling detail. This is one laser that makes you work almost as hard as the filmmaker . . . well, maybe almost.

"The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus" is as unusual and idiosyncratic as its one-of-a-kind title. You'd expect no less from Terry Gilliam, and admirers of this singular filmmaker will be pleased to know that "Imaginarium" is one of his most original and accessible works. A member of the Monty Python troupe, Gilliam is nothing if not audacious; witness earlier films such as "Brazil," "Time Bandits" and "Twelve Monkeys." Here he applies his fantastic and fantastical imagination to a visually dazzling tale of combat for men's souls.

"The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus," Terry Gilliam's best film in years, isn't due to open until Dec. 25, but for those of you who can't wait, the American Cinematheque has brought back a few of this visionary director's greatest hits. On Saturday, luxuriate in the glory that is "Brazil," a science fiction satire that has lost none of its bite. And on Sunday, revisit the marvelous "Time Bandits," the story of a time-traveling 11-year-old that proves that smartly made films can captivate children and adults alike.

Chris Marker's "La Jetee" has been a totem for nearly half a century. It's a haunting half-hour film enshrouded in mystique. Marker (born Christian Francois Bouche-Villeneuve in 1921, either outside Paris, as many sources say, or in Ulan Bator, as the writer and director has claimed), has a godlike reputation among cinephiles, thanks both to the ingenious and often playful nature of his essayistic films (he's made dozens) and to his obscurity.

Terry Gilliam went to the movies the other night, and this is what he saw. "Trailers from 'Transformers,' 'G.I. Joe,' 'Harry Potter'; they all had the same explosions, the same sound mix, the same rhythms, it was all the same film," the director says, still not quite believing it. "Hollywood's been doing this for 20 years. When's it going to end?"

Calling Terry Gilliam a liar isn't an insult. It's a job description. Gilliam is often referred to as a dreamer, but he casts his lot not with visionaries but with frauds and mountebanks, tellers for whom a well-spun tale is its own reward. It is hard to envision a more perfect match between teller and tale than the one between Gilliam and Karl Friedrich Hieronymus, the Baron Munchausen, memorialized as the greatest liar in history.

Like a character in a fairy tale caught between the forces of light and those of darkness, "The Brothers Grimm" attempts to serve two masters. No, there is not a happy ending.

"Brazil" is for sale. The movie, not the country. Sidney Sheinberg, president of MCA Inc., the parent company of Universal Pictures, says the studio will take a loss on its $9-million investment in Terry Gilliam's futuristic black comedy, even though he and other Universal executives believe that the film has Academy Award potential.

Terry Gilliam, the maverick director responsible for such off-center films as "Time Bandits," "12 Monkeys" and "Brazil," met his match when he tackled Cervantes' Don Quixote. His 10-year battle to bring the character to the screen became an obsession -- one he was forced to suspend when his $32-million production had the plug pulled by the insurance company in October 2000 after just six days of shooting. Chronicling the film's decline and fall were documentarians Keith Fulton and Louis Pepe, brought in to track the evolution of the project.

There are some interesting end credits to be found in Terry Gilliam's fantasy "The Brothers Grimm," which opens Friday, more than two years after it began production in Prague. Coming in first place in the category of "star with the biggest entourage" is Matt Damon, who plays Will Grimm.